Kanepi Overcomes Petkovic, Heads to Semifinals
Kaia Kanepi has moved to the semifinals of Brisbane International, the year's first major event in professional women's tennis, after defeating number two seed Andrea Petkovic from Germany.
Going up against the world's number 10, Kanepi, whose own best ranking is 16th, and is currently 34th, managed her seventh victory over a top-10 player. The two have played once before, last year, when Kanepi also won.
After Kanepi initially dominated the opening set, the match evened out during a second-set tiebreak before coming to a quick endgame resulting in the Estonian's 6-1, 7-6 (9-7) victory.
Kanepi served 12 aces and made three double faults, while Petkovic made one ace and one double fault.
In the semifinal, Kanepi will face the third seed, Italian Francesca Schiavone, ranked 11th in the world. Kanepi has met with Schiavone on six other occasions, victorious in two of them, including in their last match, last fall in Moscow.
Ott Tammik